RWC REPORT: Another Swedish gem?

By Matthew Wuest - RedWingsCentral.com / November 3, 2008

Will Gustav Nyquist prove to be Hakan Andersson's latest find?

It's certainly too early to tell right now, but the Detroit Red Wings' draft pick — selected in June on the advice of Andersson, director of European scouting — is off to a very encouraging start with the Maine Black Bears.

Nyquist, a Swede who is making the jump to North America, leads the Black Bears with two goals and five assists in six games after a breakthrough weekend. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound left-winger had a pair of three-point games against Niagara and sits tied for 10th in the Hockey East scoring race.

Whether he can keep up this pace remains to be seen, but either way, he's playing a prominent scoring-line role as an NCAA rookie at Maine, and hasn't wasted any time working his way to the top of the Black Bears' roster.

It's extremely rare for a European prospect to go the U.S. college route, but it allows Nyquist to learn the North American game against strong, mature competition while getting an education. It also buys the Red Wings some extra time to let him develop, as they don't have to sign him until 2012.

Nyquist projects as a second- or third-line forward with penalty-killing upside. He has a non-stop motor, outstanding two-way hockey sense and is the type of player who fits the Red Wings' current system extremely well.

He produced 32 goals among 75 points in 66 games at the Swedish under-20 level the past two seasons, but was unranked by Central Scouting heading into last year's draft. The Red Wings nabbed him with their third pick, 121st overall.

Here's a look at some other notes from the past week.

* Forward Ville Leino (Grand Rapids, AHL) is scoring at such a ridiculous pace it's hard to imagine the Red Wings keeping him on the farm much longer. He has 13 points in eight games, ninth in the league. Leino also has an escape clause to go back to Finland if he's not happy playing in the minors.

* Forward Randy Cameron (Moncton, QMJHL) has been part of history this week. His Moncton Wildcats, ranked second in the Canadian Hockey League, are 14-0-2 and have not lost in regulation, the best start in Q history. He is second on the team in assists, sixth in scoring, and No. 1 on faceoffs.

* Forward Stephen Johnston (Belleville, OHL) has been out since Oct. 25 with a groin injury. He has 12 points in 13 games.

* Forward Joakim Andersson (Frolunda, SEL) recorded his first points of the Swedish Elite League season this week. Andersson is a terrific prospect who doesn't get a lot of attention and has had a slow start to the season.

* Goaltender Daniel Larsson (Grand Rapids, AHL) saw his numbers take a beating this week when he allowed four goals on seven shots in just 16 minutes of action in a 5-4 loss to Milwaukee. His goals-against average ballooned to 4.26. Jimmy Howard came on in relief and turned aside 17 of 18.

* Forward Evan McGrath (Grand Rapids, AHL) is finding ice time hard to come by, and in the third year of his entry-level contract, that's not good.

The following is an up-to-date statistical report for skaters:

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
A H L
Ville Leino	Grand Rapids	AHL	8	4	9	13	0
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	8	4	5	9	4
Justin Abdelkader	Grand Rapids	AHL	8	7	2	9	17
Darren Helm	Grand Rapids	AHL	6	0	7	7	0
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	8	1	3	4	8
Jonathan Ericsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	8	0	4	4	16
Ryan Oulahen	Grand Rapids	AHL	8	3	0	3	7
Logan Pyett	Grand Rapids	AHL	7	0	3	3	0
Cory Emmerton	Grand Rapids	AHL	8	0	3	3	0
Jamie Tardif	Grand Rapids	AHL	5	1	0	1	0
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	4	0	1	1	2
Sergei Kolosov	Grand Rapids	AHL	5	0	0	0	0
Jan Mursak	Grand Rapids	AHL	6	0	0	0	2
K H L
Gennady Stolyarov	Astana Barys	KHL	16	5	3	8	14
Miroslav Blatak	Salavat Yulaev	KHL	20	1	5	6	8
S W E D E N
Dick Axelsson	Djurgarden	SEL	10	3	3	6	4
Anton Axelsson	Timra	SEL	17	3	3	6	0
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SEL	18	2	1	3	6
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SEL	18	1	1	2	10
Joakim Andersson	Boras	SWE-2	4	2	2	4	2
Johan Ryno	AIK	SWE-2	4	1	2	3	2
Jesper Samuelsson	Sundsvall	SWE-2	1	0	0	0	5
C H L
Randy Cameron	Moncton	QMJHL	14	3	12	15	6
Brent Raedeke	Edmonton	WHL	17	7	7	14	25
Stephen Johnston	Belleville	OHL	13	4	8	12	12
Zack Torquato	Erie	OHL	15	7	4	11	29
Brian Lashoff	Barrie	OHL	14	1	8	9	11
N C A A
Gustav Nyquist	Maine	HE	6	2	5	7	8
Brendan Smith	Wisconsin	WCHA	8	3	0	3	18
Nick Oslund	St. Cloud State	WCHA	6	2	0	2	2
Julien Cayer	Clarkson	WCHA	3	1	1	2	4
Bryan Rufenach	Clarkson	ECAC	4	0	1	1	16
Nils Backstrom	Alaska-Anchorage	WCHA	8	0	0	0	8
U S H L
Max Nicastro	Chicago	USHL	9	2	5	7	17

The following is an up-to-date statistical report for goaltenders:

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	W-L-O	GAA	SPCT
Thomas McCollum	Guelph	OHL	16	9-5-1	2.40	.922
Jimmy Howard	Grand Rapids	AHL	5	2-2-1	2.43	.901
Daniel Larsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	4	2-1-0	4.26	.873

LEAGUE LEGEND: AHL — American Hockey League; KHL — Kontinental Hockey League; SEL — Swedish Elite League; SWE-2 — Swedish second level; SWE-J20 — Swedish under-20 league; -->OHL — Ontario Hockey League; WHL — Western Hockey League; QMJHL — Quebec Major Junior Hockey LeagueCCHA — Central Collegiate Hockey Association-->; WCHA — Western Collegiate Hockey AssociationECAC — East Coast Athletic Conference -->; USHL — United States Hockey League.